Kudos to a Journalist (Harriet Hall) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/kudos-to-a-journalist/ An award for science journalism went to Bob Ortega for a well-researched article revealing that the SurePath preservative is not FDA approved for the HPV test. In fact, the company and the FDA had issued warnings to labs about the risk of false negative results; but that information had not reached doctors and patients.

Doctors and Dying (Steven Novella) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/doctors-and-dying/ Familiarity with the futility of certain treatments has made doctors less likely than other people to accept aggressive end-of-life care. Health resources are not infinite, and overly aggressive care may just cause more pain and suffering. More accurate information (for instance, the low success rate of CPR) and better communication about end of life issues can help patients come to terms with death and encourage them to sign advance directives to make their wishes clear.

Chiropractic and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Clay Jones) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/chiropractic-and-sudden-infant-death-syndrome/ Sudden infant death syndrome is frightening; chiropractors capitalize on that fear and offer spinal manipulation of infants as a way to prevent SIDS. There are legitimate ways to lower the risk, like putting babies to sleep on their backs and avoiding exposure to tobacco smoke. There is no rationale or evidence to support spinal manipulation for SIDS prevention, and the one study chiropractors cite is an uncontrolled farce that doesn’t address SIDS itself.